Today's barbecue joints tend to serve just one or two kinds of meats, with pork predominate in the Carolinas and Georgia and beef the star out in Texas and Kansas City. Not so in the old days.

Back when barbecues were large-scale community affairs, the meat served was whatever people had on hand and could donate to the cause. Lists like the following, from a description of an 1868 barbecue in Spartanburg, South Carolina, were par for the course: "beef, mutton, pork, and fowls were provided in superabundance."
At the largest events, the menus could be eye-popping. Perhaps the most extensive is the selection served at the 1923 inauguration of Oklahoma governor Jack Walton. The event was held in January, and just before Christmas, Walton sent out a call to Oklahoma farmers to donate animals for the event.

And donate they did. The final tally, as printed in the Dallas Morning News, included thousands of cows, hogs, sheep, and chickens plus 103 turkeys, 1,363 rabbits, 26 squirrels, 134 opossums, 113 geese, 34 ducks, 15 deer, 2 buffalo, and 2 reindeer that had been "shipped in from the North."

A man from Sayre, Oklahoma, captured a live bear and offered him to the cause, too. But the bear won the sympathy of Oklahoma school children, who pooled their pocket change, bought him for $119.66, and donated him to the Wheeler Park Zoo. The bear was a crowd favorite for more than a decade.

Cooking opossum???
American tastes are so undeveloped and unsophisticated...

July 12, 2012 at 12:44 pm |

Gene

Perhaps it is your lack of gastronomic experiences that make you the one to be the culinary ignoranus.

July 12, 2012 at 1:00 pm |

Texas Pete

If you think opossum is good, then you should try BBQ armadillo. The part I like the best is it comes in its own shell that locks in juices. I've always wondered why some crazy Texican, maybe in the Waco area, hasn't started a armadillo ranch. They sure beat the taste of supermarket cardboard chicken.

July 12, 2012 at 1:13 pm |

SouthernCelt

Just don't serve any Lone Star Beer with it, unless you want the Revenge of the Giant Armadillo :-).

July 12, 2012 at 5:47 pm |

Bobb@Jeann

I agree, how uncouth! Even with a glass of Rothschild, this could not be palatable...

July 12, 2012 at 2:06 pm |

doughnuts

Very few Americans would willingly eat possum. To me, it always looked like a giant pre-historic rat. But every cultural foodway has dishes that other cultures find repellent.

Snails, for instance are a rather disgusting addition to any nation's cuisine.

July 12, 2012 at 2:59 pm |

simon

I gotta say, ive had opossum, and it was delicious. You gotta parboil it first – let the grease rise to the top, but then you take it out and smoke it, basting it as you go in a part vinegar part tomato sauce, kind of like piedmont of western NC style BBQ sauce. It might be ok with just a vinegar base like in eastern NC, but i havent tried that.

Its a white meat, and tastes like chicken, but with a slight gamey flavor, a little like squirrel but more tender. I suggest folks try it – there s no great risk in over hunting the possum population any time soon, and it survives reasonably well near human habitats, making it a pretty ideal food source. Dont kill a mom with babies though, if you can avoid it...

Just by calling it opossum you have labeled yourself an outsider, not worthy of a taste of this southern delicacy. It's Possum, you damn Yankee. We have armadillo in Georgia too. We call it "possum on the half-shell"!

July 12, 2012 at 6:55 pm |

effjay

Outsider? Screw you, nothing wrong about being a Yankee. Being a southern dick is another story.

July 12, 2012 at 7:32 pm |

Bill Duke

Yankees are dumber than dirt. Your post just proved it.

July 12, 2012 at 10:11 pm |

randoid1234

Calm down Burp or we'll come through and burn Atlanta again and march to the sea.

July 13, 2012 at 11:28 am |

Jeff Cox

Where's Granny Clampett now that we need her possum recipes?

July 13, 2012 at 3:52 pm |

Uhhhhdel

The best BBQ I have had was Smoked Lamb Ribs from Jack Stack in KC. Made their beef brisket and pulled pork pale in comparison.

July 12, 2012 at 12:23 pm |

Georgia BBQ Forever!

I remember stumbling on the unexpected pleasure of Goat BBQ at a roadside stand (long gone) in Watkinsville, GA, back in the mid-60's. It was incredibly good. I haven't found anything to match it since.

July 12, 2012 at 12:05 pm |

doughnuts

If I'm going to eat goat, I prefer it in a nice cury.

July 12, 2012 at 3:01 pm |

Kip

You must try cabrito in a good Mexican restaurant.........unbelievably good.